Two Flowers
by santana the strange
Summary: Lily and Petunia Evans were both named after flowers, though the meanings of those names differed importantly. This is the story of Lily's time at Hogwarts and Dumbledore's answer to Petunia's plee. R and R, first Harry Potter Fanfic, hope you like it!


Lily Evans woke that morning, a year older than the night before. It was her eleventh birthday, her last year in junior school; soon she would get to attend the secondary school Petunia went to. Yet there was something different about this morning. She couldn't put her finger on it as she climbed out of bed and made her way to the closet to get dressed.

Sunday, the day of rest, perhaps her family would go to church today. Lily dressed quickly and made to draw the curtains to her bedroom window and gasped in shock and awe when she found the most beautiful snow white owl seated on her windowsill, tapping his beak on the window as though he wanted entrance. Lily shook her head at the silly thought, owls did not come inside they had nests they built in trees outside.

'Happy birthday to you,' a voice called from the doorway and Lily turned to see her older sister Petunia standing there with a tiny cupcake in her hand, it had a candle in it and it smelled glorious. Petunia had baked this one, just as she had baked last years. 'Come on, come on blow the candle out and make a wish,' Petunia demanded as she crossed into the bedroom and seated herself on the edge of the younger sister's bed.

Lily took a deep breath before whispering, 'I want to always be with Petunia my sister.' Her wish made she blew out the candle, parted the cake and handed half to her sister who shook her head before accepting the food at the young sister's stern glare.

'And I want to always be with you Lily, after all I'm going to look out for you when you come to big school and I will always be your friend,' Petunia said, hugging Lily tight to her, and that was how the two daughters stood before their mother and father entered the room, singing the happy birthday song too.

'Come on Lily, Petunia, let's go open the birthday presents,' their father said as he put his arm around Lily and Petunia and guided them down to the living room that was filled with birthday presents. The Evans had a lot of money, their father being the owner of his own company, and they adored spoiling their two daughters. And it hadn't turned them rotten for the only thing they cared about more than their parents, was each other. They were always there for each other.

When Lily was younger she used to suffer horrible nightmares of large snakes and fires, a man with dark brown hair and pallid skin. Lily dreamt of dying, and the dreams were coming back, only last night had she dreamt that she was all grown up, but she had been attacked and had died in the middle of her bedroom, protecting something. Lily hadn't known what that something was, but she had known she'd loved whatever it was more than life, she knew she had to protect it, keep it from harm.

And through those nightmares Petunia had been there to comfort her, to wake her from them, to soothe her heated brow with a cold flannel, to press kisses to her cheek and tell her everything was going to be alright.

The girls made their way downstairs, arm in arm and entered the living room.

'Open your presents Lily,' their mother called out; cradling her swollen stomach she made to sit down on the chair, to keep off her feet. Mrs Evans was pregnant a third time, yet the gender of the baby had been kept a secret.

Lily had barely finished opening the first present from her parents, an old fashioned notebook made up of parchment and a quill, when the letterbox slammed shut. The letterbox? Dread swam through her as she recalled that there had never been post on a Sunday morning before. As her parents exchanged looks she made her way to the front door warily to see a solitary creamy white envelope with a stamped seal on the back.

Breathing deeply to steady her Lily edged down the hallway towards the letter, praying she was still dreaming, praying she hadn't seen the owl on the windowsill that morning. But she had and she wasn't asleep she was wide awake.

Crouching down she reached out a hand to the letter, and felt along the edges of the seal, there was a capital H stamped into it and when she turned it over she saw the old fashioned handwriting that was her name and address. This letter was addressed to her as she had known, after all she was eleven now.

'Lily, are you okay dear?' Mother called from the hall and Lily shook her head, holding up the letter to her mother. 'Who's it from?' She asked and Lily took a deep breath before she answered, one word, one name, spoken with complete fear, for this letter had started off the chain of events. Lily too had dreamt of this letter. She already knew what it said and she already knew what it meant.

'Dumbledore.'


End file.
